Economy, Environment No comments yet

Alouette Fish Ladder Needed with Ruskin Dam Project

By on June 12th, 2011

There was an article by Phil Melnychuk in the Maple Ridge News titled “Maple Ridge group pushes for Alouette fish ladder”:

B.C. Hydro is about to open its wallet and put $800 million into refitting the aging Ruskin Dam.

So why not increase that by .03 per cent and make a $2.8-million fish ladder on the Alouette reservoir part of the project?

Alouette Lake and Stave Lake are connected by tunnels, allowing the Alouette to feed into Stave Lake.

“Ultimately, it’s a public relations win – before they’re faced with an acrimonious relationship with the public,” as people realize what private power companies in the U.S. are doing to help fish, said Geoff Clayton, with the Alouette River Management Society.

Read the article at the Maple Ridge News…

The Alouette River Management Society is making the proposal to B.C. Hydro that they build the fish ladder at the same time they are doing the other upgrades to the Ruskin Dam. It makes sense that the investment in a fish ladder would be less expensive if done at the same time as the refit project, while B.C. Hydro has crews and resources allocated.

People No comments yet

Nobel Prize Winner from Maple Ridge

By on June 11th, 2011

I was at an event put on by the Vancouver Foundation on Thursday evening called the “Maple Ridge Community Conversion” at the local library (I’ll post more about the event later when the Vancouver Foundation releases their report). We were separated into groups to discuss a number of topics and during our conversation, it happened to be mentioned that the 1999 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics went to someone from Maple Ridge. I hadn’t heard about this so I did a little research. Here is what I found:

Robert Mundell, CC (born October 24, 1932) is a Nobel-Price-winning Canadian economist. Currently, Mundell is a professor of economics at Columbia University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

He received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1999 for his pioneering work in monetary dynamics and optimum currency areas. Mundell laid the groundwork for the introduction of the Euro through this work and helped to start the movement known as supply-side economics. Mundell is also known for the Mundell–Fleming model and Mundell–Tobin effect.

Read the rest of this article on Wikipedia…

It turns out he was born in Kingston, Ontario but moved to Maple Ridge at a young age and subsequently graduated from Maple Ridge Secondary School in 1949.

I also found an article titled “Mundell Wins Nobel Economics Prize” on the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Cycling No comments yet

CAA’s Watch for Bikes Campaign: Avoiding the Door Zone

By on June 11th, 2011

I came across some information about an educational campaign being conducted by the CAA in South Central Ontario to educate both drivers and cyclists to Watch for Bikes.

CAA’s Watch for Bikes program reminds all motorists to Watch for Bikes when opening their door.

When you are driving – remember to check carefully for cyclists approaching from behind before opening a door. Every time you open your vehicle door without checking for cyclists and other traffic there is a potential for a serious collision to occur. The fine for opening a vehicle door in a cyclists path is a $110 fine and two demerit points.

Read the rest on the CAA South Central Ontario website…

In British Columbia, the fine is $81 and two demerit points. It was hard to find some statistics but I found one source from 1999, referring to Vancouver and Victoria, that indicated that dooring of cyclists by car occupants accounts for 15% of reported collisions between bikes and cars.

Often, the information for cyclists indicates they should be riding at least three feet (or one metre) away from parked vehicles to be “safe” from hitting an opened door. In fact, that is not enough space to leave, as demonstrated in the following video posted on YouTube by Wpreston3. This video is also worthwhile for non-cyclists to watch so they understand why a cyclist might be riding down the center of the right-hand lane when they are passing parked cars, even if there is a marked bike lane.